Traces of Child Sacrifice in Orthodox Judaism

Traces of Child Sacrifice in Orthodox Judaism The original article, entitled הכוח להתמודד, להמשיך ולהתחזק, which appeared in גיליון מס' 1037 of שיחת השבוע on November 17, 2006 can be found on the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/yh3mtw.

The Hebrew version of this essay, entitled: אבק זבח ילדים ביהדות חרדית can be found on the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/ssy5a.

Yet more articles and a video can be found on the following site: http://tinyurl.com/yffen4 .

As reported in the article, eight-year-old Chiah-Muska Attiyah of blessed memory, daughter of Rabbi Victor Attiyah and his wife Devorah, was playing with matches in the back yard of their home. Some dried schach (the covering of the succah, which is usually highly flammable dried, thin branches, leaves and the like) in the yard caught fire, as did the girl's dress. Her younger brother told her to take the dress off. She refused to take the burning dress off even as she was engulfed in flames because "it's not modest". "It's not modest" is a formula that is drilled into the heads of Orthodox girls from the time they are three years old. From that age they begin to wear dresses that cover their knees by a few inches, with high necklines, long sleeves and opaque stockings. They are taught to dress and undress under a blanket. If their dress goes over their knee while sitting, running, playing - anything they are reprimanded: "It's not modest!" Modesty for an Orthodox girl is everything.

Chiah Mushka died.

She died because the lesson of being modest was drilled into her more than the overriding principle that saving a life, including her own, precludes all else. Her younger brother did know that either because as a boy he was better schooled than she or because, still being so young, he was reacting with natural common sense. God only knows the effect the experience had on her brother. The worst of it is that neither her father, the head of the Chaba"d house in Kiryat Arba-Chevron, nor his community and large circle of friends seem to have learned anything from the terrible incident. As we see from the site above, Rabbi Attiyah addressed an audience of 600 girls wherein he praised the virtue of modesty. He said nothing about his daughter not understanding the virtue of modesty properly or that saving one's life takes precedence over being modest.

Rather than asking himself if his understanding of Jewish Law and the way he was promulgating it is incorrect; the Rabbi is digging in his heels and building a large school in his daughter's honor wherein they will disseminate the self-same teachings. There isn't the merest hint that the teachings of female modesty in the school being built in her memory will be revised from the way in which she was taught. There is no intimation in the incident, as reported, that either the family of the child, Chiah-Mushka Attiyah, of blessed memory, or any of the thousands of people who attended the funeral and contacted the family during the mourning period thereafter see this as anything other than a story of the ultimate "self-sacrifice" for the sake of the grand principle of female modesty. She is being hailed as a precocious paragon of female Orthodox Jewish virtue. It is a perversion of our religion to think that it is in any ways right that a child should die for the sake of modesty. There are only three mitzvot that a Jew who is ben or bat mitzvah must die rather than commit: They are: incest, idol worship and the shedding of innocent blood – known by the acronym גע"ש.

If there be among you anyone who might think that an eight-year-old engulfed in flames taking off her dress in front of her younger brother constitutes the sin of incest, consider that in the time that she said: "It's not modest!", she could have said: "Turn away!"

There is an element of child sacrifice in this incident that is blood chilling and wholly inimical to Judaism as I learned it. There was always a strain of this type of approach in Judaism, but it was a strain and nothing more. The vast majority of Orthodox Jews were rational and common sensical. That was even true among those who learned the Kabbalah. I remember Jews as being very rational from my childhood, speaking of "luftmenschkeit" with utter disdain. This fanaticism is now the norm in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish world.

This fanaticism is growing and becoming more dangerous, even fatal. We see the execrable violence in Orthodox/non-Orthodox relations. We see it in factional violence even within the same group of Orthodox Jews. We now see it in the death of children who have not even attained the age of being b'nei and b'not mitzvah.

I recall two stories of extreme modesty in women, two women who are held up as models of the modesty. The first is that of a woman by the name of Kimchit, the story of whom is related here: http://tinyurl.com/y4w23u . Note that the site says of Kimchit: "She was rewarded with seven sons who served as High Priests. We see from this story that a woman’s covering her hair in private is highly praiseworthy." Let's examine these comments. Is having seven sons who were High Priests a reward? The High Priesthood was an office for life from the time it was assumed. In order for a High Priest to be replaced by another he had to die or be otherwise incapacitated or found incapable or unworthy to continue the function. It is not a natural state that in the space of the lifetime of seven brothers they all serve as High Priests. Clearly, something is very wrong in this story. Indeed, the Talmud relates an explanation of this story that appears contrived and unconvincing, as we see here: http://tinyurl.com/yaoulz . Moreover, it is said that other women likewise did not let the beams of their house "see" their hair. Surely there was another reason why all seven of Kimchit's sons become High Priests. The text would have us understand that she did something meritorious in addition to being very careful about covering her hair. Perhaps the fact that those seven men grew up in a home in which the wrong aspects of Torah were overly stressed contributed to the fact that they did not serve as High Priests in a normal, natural way. Perhaps a woman being so punctilious about covering her hair in private that the "walls of her house do not "see" her hair is not so "praiseworthy" after all. Perhaps it is unhealthy fanaticism, which always comes at the expense of doing mitzvoth correctly and putting the emphasis on serving humanity.

The second story of a model of female modesty is that of a woman who pinned her dress to her legs so that when she was dragged through the streets to her death by horses no one would see her legs. The story, entitled "שלש מתנות", part 3, by י"ל פרץ can be found in Hebrew on the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/yn27u9 . This is a story that recounts a grown woman, a woman who is bat mitzvah. She was designated for death in the brutal way described immediately above by Gentile authorities. Rather than give them the satisfaction of seeing her utterly humiliated, she pinned her dress to the flesh of her legs so that they would not be seen. Obviously, that must have been very painful. It was a brave and noble act of defiance and retaining her dignity to the last.

Eight-year-old Chiah-Mushka Attiyah, of blessed memory, was in no way in the same position. She could have and should have taken off her dress. She would have in no way been compromising her self. She made the ultimate compromise of herself for nothing, for absolutely nothing – because she was incorrectly educated in Jewish Law. God protect us if this is what "Ufaratztah" (the spreading of Jewish teaching and practice) means. May God prevent the spreading of such "teaching" of such "Chassidus" (piety; devotion; virtue; Hassidism). Please do not misunderstand me.

It is of no especial import that the family is Chaba"d. It could have happened in any ultra-Orthodox family. In fact, most of the Orthodox who have heard this story seem to think that as regrettable and tragic as it is, it was unavoidable and that the girl did the right thing.I am convinced that Rabbi and Rebbetzen Attiyah are lovely and loving people. I am sure that there intentions are only good. The problem is that they are terribly misled. Herein lies the problem with Judaism today - the confusion, the ignorance, the reversal of priorities and the superstition that passes for halakhah.

This story haunts me for many reasons.

Looking at the pictures of the lovely children Chiah Mushke, of blessed memory, and her siblings on the site (http://www.chabad-hebron.com/345.html) we see healthy, happy children. They are immaculately clean. They are well dressed. There isn't a spot on their clothes, not so much as a wrinkle. Not one hair is out of place. They are obviously the recipients of great love and devotion. They also obviously love one another profoundly. There isn't the merest hint of neglect.

There is no doubt in my mind that the girls were educated to overweening צניעות (modesty) out of the sincere desire to protect them. The problem is, צניעות (modesty) seems to have been used as a kind of fetish and the *only* fence of protection. They were obviously not taught the whole battery of survival skills that we all need.

Chiah Mushke was playing with matches, which there is every reason to assume that she knew was forbidden. From this we learn that she had the spunk to be a bit naughty.

So, why was she not a bit "naughty" enough to go against Torah to save her life, assuming she did not know that פקוח נפש (saving a life) is a מצוה (mitzvah, commandment, good deed), and not an עברה (sin, transgression)?

Why was the will to survive so attenuated in this child? Was it a function of her education as an ultra-Orthodox female child, education geared toward creating women who will be utterly devoted to others, never thinking of their own welfare. I am apt to think that this occurred as a result of a wholly distorted concept of בטול (self-effacement, negation of the ego) and that is the reason why this story haunts me so.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

WHAT IF EVERYTHING YOU BELIEVE IS A LIE?

"What if everything you believe is a lie?" - I found that question posed to the public on a site. I think it was meant to freak people out or get them to think as the person who asked the question would like them to, assuming the way s/he thinks is The Truth.

A long time ago I stated that I take no unilateral, absolute positions on any issue. I have no social or emotional need to adopt a position and cling to it at all cost in order to fit into a social group.

That, I believe, is why most people cling tenaciously to their opinions - fear of isolation. Most people hinge the satisfaction of their innate gregarious natures upon the adoption of a value system. They are willing to sacrifice their independence of thought and position-taking for the sake of acceptance. I will not make this sacrifice. I never did.

I have been accused of being "schizo" by people who hold desperately to one given way of thinking or another due to the fact that my way of thinking is eclectic, syncretistic and, above all, tentative at any given time, always subject to change when confronted by reasoning that seems more comprehensive or otherwise superior.

Some understand that that it is positive, the mark of a truly open mind, rather than a sign of pathology.

I (tentatively :0) think the following quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald is brilliant: "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. "

As my mother used to quote Shakespeare saying: "This above all,--to thine own self be true;", the remainder of the quote being: "and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." (Hamlet, Prince of Denmark)

Loyalty, whether it be to ideas, ideals or to persons is a very great value and virtue, but, IMO, allowing oneself to grow and evolve toward more comprehensive understanding, which allows us to love on a higher level, is greater and often that involves the moving on and away from that which and whom we cherished.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

Pederasty in Ancient Greece

For a discussion of the topic please see: http://tinyurl.com/yhjvbp

The subject of Pederasty in ancient Greece came to my attention recently and caused me to reevaluate my thinking about bisexuality among men, while affirming my thinking on bisexuality as experienced and practiced by women.

Before reading about Pederasty in ancient Greece and based only on my observations of society in our times and in the recent past; I came to the conclusion that bisexuality is not only more prevalent among women than among men, but also perhaps more natural to their nature.

In the light of what I have learned about Pederasty, as practiced in ancient Greece by men and analogous behavior among women; it now seems to me that bisexuality is the norm for both sexes and will be the commonly practiced form of sexuality in the absence of societal pressures to be otherwise.

Note: Pederasty is not Pedophilia, even though it would not accord with ages of consent in conservative countries like the US. Herein we are discussing relationships between mature men and young men or adolescent boys, not between pubescent adults and pre-pubescent children, which I consider a gross form of abuse, wholly unnatural and thus a serious crime against nature.

Ancient Greece was a society in which Pederasty was not only considered normal or desirable, it was considered essential for the full development of the citizen. The Wikipedia article describes the phenomenon thusly: "The erastes-eromenos (the older lover-young object of his love, my parentheses) relationship was fundamental to the Classical Greek social and educational system, had its own complex social-sexual etiquette and was an important social institution among the upper class."

We note a number of elements of ancient Greek Pederasty.

First, it was not an abusive relationship, but one of love. I mention this because today the definition of Pederasty includes any type of mature-youthful homosexual relationship, including violent and otherwise abusive ones.

It was tremendously widespread in ancient Greece, truly a societal norm, which assumed various forms in accordance with the various cultures of the various City-States.

Ancient Greek art depicts the eromenoi (the term used for the "beloved" youth, the objects of love of the mature men) as physically well-developed. They are clearly fully sexually mature, quite muscularly developed and, admittedly in some but not all cases, in their full height.

The statues and art of ancient Greece teach us that neither the erastes nor the eromenos look "queer". They practiced homosexual relationships freely, but were very male in appearance, behavior, emotional make-up and thought patterns.

The Pederasty was in addition to, not instead of, relationships with women in which men were married and had children. As the Wikipedia article states: "The Greeks considered it normal for any man to be drawn to the beauty of a boy - just as much if not more than to that of a woman."

It is important to consider the implications of the fact that the practice was extremely widespread. It is impossible that an entire culture was based on an unnatural sexuality. That is to say, that in a culture in which homosexual expression of love is not forbidden, it will arise spontaneously, be widespread and exist side-by-side with heterosexual expression of love. The article also states: "Analogous relations between Greek women and adolescent girls have been reported by Plutarch, Xenophon and others." Bisexuality seems to be the norm for humans if not suppressed, that being, as I have (tentatively) concluded, as true for men as for women.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

A political short story for Hallowe'en.

Hillary is taking part in a seance trying to contact Eleanor Roosevelt, another one of the political greats with whom she is certain she shares an eternal spiritual bond. "Come to me Eleanor! Speak to me, Eleanor! Speak! I summon thee from the grave! I command thee to speak to me!"

The candles begin to flicker wildly. The chandeliers rattle. The carpet on the wall begins to wave. A crystal vase on a table shakes violently making its way of the edge of table and shatters on the marble floor. But nary is a voice heard.

So, they get out the oija board and the letters spell out: "Bugger off, Hillary. I don't speak with the likes of you."

Doreen Ellen-Bell Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

Reasons Not to Live in Tzfat (Safed), Or Anywhere Else in Israel for that Matter

--- In Tzfat@yahoogroups.com, "flakfire" wrote:>> Sabras are only at their best when their backs are really against the > wall.

I wrote:

You might add the inability to rethink our mythology about ourselves or be confused by the facts to your list.

You just lived through a war in which the Israelis were most certainly not at their best, but you persist in repeating the old cliches that give you an illusory sense of security.

That is one of the most obiquitous and serious problems in Israeli society.

flakfire wrote:

Otherwise, they are generally quite paltry and mediocre: blase, over-> confident, arrogant, ungrateful, easily sidetracked and none too smart!

I wrote:

Speak in the second person plural. Why do you exempt yourself?

flakfire wrote:

And that includes ALL Sabras: Jews, Arabs, left wing, right wing, charedi, frum (religious), professors, professionals, chilloni (secular)....! If it wasn't for the constant threat from the outside plus the constant stream of > new immigrant Jews, Israel would quickly degenerate into a farrago!

I wrote:

The way you use the term 'ferrago' is a malapropism. Your other IDs use malapropisms in the very same way. Ditto for the run on descriptions and overly emotional exclamation marks.

Can we get real? Perhaps that's a funny question to pose in a response to someone who posts with an alias (or two, or three...)

Can we admit that we have failed miserably?

We have not created a society that is in any wise superior to that of the Gentiles.

We do not exceed the Gentiles in average IQ in Israel, as we do in the Diaspora. (The average IQ of American Jews is 117. For Ethiopian Israeli Jews it is 105-110. For Ashkenazi Israeli Jews it is 100. For Mizrahi Israeli Jews it is 88). Our political system is not superior to the Gentiles'. Our judicial system is not superior to theirs. Our quality of living is not superior to theirs. We have not created a society that is more peaceful than theirs, more cultured, more interesting - in short, more anything. Let's not even talk about statistics of road accidents. We have a better system of medicine than does the US, but it is inferior to that of Gentile countries that likewise have socialized systems of medicine.

We are mediocre in every way, in every sphere.

Scientists who have talent are working for foreign research and many of them beat a permanent path out of here.

In all spheres there is a brain drain out of the country.

Certainly we are not proving either to ourselves or to the world that we are chosen.

We, in becoming a nation with a state, lost everything we once were. We also lost the respect and the awe of the nations.

We are sending our boys to die for the myths we want to believe about ourselves.

It doesn't matter that we have a nuclear arsenal. We can't use it without making mushroom soup of ourselves too. We are smack dab in the Middle East. So, if someone thinks that is a reason to have a state, they are dead wrong.

More than terrorist bombs, our illusions and delusions are blowing up all around us.

The only thing we do well is be second fiddle in others' countries.

When we are not in the driver's seat we make great driving instructors. Those who can't do teach.

I heard of a man who arrived here from Morocco as a child. He had a fistukia (a stand for nuts and snacks) that he barely made a living from. One day he decided to try his luck in Morocco. He became a successful businessman there. The same man who could hardly run a fistukia here ran a corporation in Morocco. The only difference was the location.

The only sane way to go is to realize that we are entertaining very dangerous illusions and delusions about ourselves. The foremost among them is that we are fit to run a state of our own.

I say we face the reality that we are making a total mess of our ersatz state and that we are at the point of losing control totally. I say the smartest way to go is to cut our losses, pack up and go back to wherever we came from and salvage whatever we can of what Jewry once was.

This country will go out , either with a bang or a wimper, if we persist in the belief that we are the holy People in the holy Land and that everything we do is blessed.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

Carpe Diem! - Hallowe'en that is.

One day a year only you too can be a Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan look-alike. Well, almost. There'll always only be the one and only genuine article.

With a little help of a cheap, um, I mean, economically-savvy, wig you can approximate the world-renowned Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan uniqueness, magnificence, splendor and elegance. OK. Maybe none of that. But you can get a wig in your price range that'll afford you some of that famous "look" that is so jealously sought after.

WOW! The Whole Scotland Yard of It - That's as Close as You're Ever Going to Come to the Real McCoy: http://tinyurl.com/y3ssjh

http://tinyurl.com/y5sh2b

http://tinyurl.com/y2s48l

This One Actually Looks Something Like My Hair: https://www.magicmakers.com/retail/wigs/xlong_grey_wig.html

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!

Doreen Dotan's Miscellaneous Meanderings

http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/MiscellaneousMeanderings.html

When I consider the various schools of Judaism, such as they are nowadays; I feel like Goldilocks. One is too hard, a second too soft, yet a third too middling – and all entirely too Procrustean.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel

As Poets make of themselves unrequited lovers, so Anarchists make of themselves Proletarians.

The limerent object of the Anarchist is all of Humanity.

What is Anarchistic Judaism?

This question was recently posed to me. The article on the link below is my level best tentative response, in so far as I am currently able to answer this very difficult question.

http://tinyurl.com/syelf

The Hebrew version of this essay entitled, not surprisingly,
?מהי יהדות אנרכיסטית is to be found on the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/ulcan

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

Possible Way to Defeat Radical Islam

As background to this post, I'd like to turn the readers' attention to an absolutely stunning video entitled "Obsession". If you have not seen it; I recommend that you set aside one hour and seventeen minutes and see some of the most nitty-gritty footage of radical Islam ever assembled. The video is to be found on this URL:http://tinyurl.com/sxkov

I discussed the Obsession video with others.They watched part of it and want to see the rest when they have time.

One of them, kidding, said: "Guess we'll have to become Muslims."

A light went on when he said that.

YES!

That may just be the only way to beat them.

Just as they have infiltrated our countries; we must infiltrate their Islam by "converting" and destroy if from within.

With a flood of phony converts who undermine Islam from within we can destroy Islam. Their "religion" will never be the same if millions of Western people intent on uprooting Islam feign conversion.

I believe that the churches weakened themselves by forcing conversion.

There were many converts who talked the talk, but they never were Christians inside and their mass effect over generations weakened the power structure of the churches.

As we know, any Jewish "Conversos" who were forcibly converted in Spain and Portugal pretended to be Catholics, but they undermined the religion and secretly passed Jewish teachings on to their children and they to their children and so on. Today there are families in the Spanish-speaking world who were converted over 500 years ago to Catholicism by force who are returning to their Jewish roots.

Armed warfare with Islam is impossible. They are in every country and their armies are massive.

The only way to beat them is from within.

Understand that I mean this as a last resort. I am certainly not running off to my nearest mosque for a quicky conversion, but if Armeggedon comes; I think this may be the best way to deal with the situation.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
__________________

Ontological Anarchy, Quantum Physics and Judaism

As background to Ontological Anarchy please see:

http://tinyurl.com/mxyrl

Having considered the concepts of Ontological Anarchy and Quantum Physics, at least briefly; we can now tie them to Judaism.

It might seem that if we accept that Anarchy is ontological then we have to reject the set Laws in Torah. Or, if we accept that the universe is ruled by the Laws in Torah, then we cannot posit ontological Anarchy.

One or the other needs to go. Right? I think not.

Remember that all of the letters in Hebrew are numerical values. Since numerical values all have an infinite number of substitution values; it is true that there is always an infinite number of alternative, equivalent readings of the Torah effective.

See: The Imperative of Moral Mathematics

http://tinyurl.com/6o3no

-and-

ALEPH – The Unending One

http://tinyurl.com/zghyg

In other words, we have to start to think of that which is written in Torah in a "quantum" manner, to describe the thinking in modern jargon. We are used to thinking of Torah "collapsed" into one possibility of reading/computation, but in reality it is in infinite states of reading/computation and availing itself of infinite interpretation always. It is we who solidify it into one state when we observe it in a state of mochin katnut (restricted consciousness in Aramaic), even as we do the very same to the physical world when we train our consciousness on it.

As background to the following discussion please see:

Anarchy and the Spiritual Quest

http://tinyurl.com/mr9pk

Our consciousness is, in large part, predicated upon our interactions with others in society. As we relate to one another, so we conceptualize and take cognizance of the phenomena presented to our consciousness, or more correctly, take cognizance of the fact that our consciousness is producing that which is presented to it. It is generally accepted that how we use language determines our consciousness, that consciousness is a function of linguistics. Looking deeper into the matter; it will become apparent that our language is nothing other than memeplexes - that is our conceptual inheritance, the ways in which we were taught from infancy to relate to other human beings, as those who came before us did. Among the media of exchange of this information are language; observable behavior among people: caring or indifference, deference to some, lack of respect for others, addressing some by their titles, addressing others by their proper names, not addressing some at all and so on; the way in which we relate to others' material substance.

If we wish to perceive תורה in its "quantum" majesty, if we wish to the following passage from Henry David Thoreau's WALDEN to apply to us, as תורה-living Jews: "He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings" ; it is imperative that we build a society that allows us to relate to one another in far more cooperative, expansive, creative ways.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
dandor@013.net - עברית

Israel is a Democracy! Right?

Israel most certainly is a democracy and a beaut of one it is too. In the space of this essay we will define democracy properly and it will become painfully apparent just how democratic the State of Israel is.

In order to make clear what democracy is, I should like to share the following with the reader:

There was once a particularly well done and disturbing episode of The Twilight Zone on American television. In an imagined 'future' there were some five or six state-sanctioned physical and mental types for each both men and women. Everyone had to undergo the operations necessary to become one of these types. The choice of which type to become was free, but the types were set. Each of the types were considered physically perfect and deemed mentally and emotionally desirable in this futuristic society. There was one young woman who, though physically plain and quirkily imperfect, didn't want to become one of the state-sanctioned types. She accepted herself as she was and didn't think that becoming another doll-like mannequin would be an improvement. She was subjected to a great deal of social temptation to become one of the state-sanctioned types. She was told that it was to her benefit to undergo the operations and those benefits were described, tantalizingly, to her. Yet, she persisted in wishing to remain herself. She was afterward cajoled, then she was ridiculed. As she persisted in holding her ground, ridicule turned to pressure, to making her feel isolated and unwanted and ultimately to threats. Yet, she held out and did not undergo the operation. It was explained to her 'rationally' that she was being unreasonable, irrational and unnecessarily iconoclastic. She was cajoled. She was told that she was being a troublemaker. She was told that she was, incidentally, rather repulsive physically as well. She was told that after undergoing the operations and becoming perfect in every way she would be happy that she did. Every manner of social pressure was heaped upon the young woman for the "crime" of wishing to be and remain herself.Finally, she did break and in the chilling last scene of the episode she is seen standing in front of a mirror, admiring her new-found perfection, every vestige of her interesting individuality completely lost. It could be inferred from that last scene that all of the others who had become state-sanctioned types had also once been individualistic, had tried to defend their own being and integrity insofar as they were able to, but they broke under "democratic" pressure to be like everyone else.That episode was aired when I was about ten years old. It had a tremendous impact on me and even at that young age I was able to understand that it was an only slightly hyperbolic description of the American society that I was living in. I understood that this was the maximum amount of freedom that was allowed to me and to the people around me by the American regime - we were allowed to 'choose' to become one of a limited number of state-sanctioned types.

You may say: "But we citizens and denizens of democracies can be vociferously critical of our governments. We can say and write what we think publicly without being censured or fear for our freedom and welfare."

I answer: Indeed. Have you ever noticed that the dissenters in democratic societies level the same criticisms, employing the same cliché phraseology, adopt the same modes of comportment and so on. There are state-sanctioned expressions of dissent. They are not only harmless to the government; they serve it by giving people the illusion that they are voicing critique. In fact, the critiques they level are mere parroting of that which they hear in the media in exactly the way in which they hear them in the media. That is to say, those "critiques" have been OK'ed by the powers that prevail. If a real critic of society, expressing original thoughts and employing original phraseology voices his or her opinion she or may be sure that she or he will be anathematized at the very least, first and foremost by the brainwashed masses of democracy, then jailed and isolated from "decent" people by those bodies who receive their salaries from the Plutocrats who are running this ersatz "democracy" to preserve "law and order" at the worst.

Democracy, in truth, is the mass illusion of personal and societal freedom created by the "manufacturing of consent" and the "engineering of consent" as developed by such "engineers of public opinion" as Walter Lippmann, Edward Bernays. Their equally nefarious, reptilian spawn, the "shapers of public opinion" continue their work to this day, having refined their techniques. It is they who are hired by the Plutocrats that run society to train the masses to think and behave as the Plutocrats wish them to. I should mention at this juncture that Edward Bernays was not only a nephew of Sigmund Freud, he was also an admirer of Ivan Pavlov, whose techniques he incorporated into his "engineering of consent".

As Edward Bernays expounds chillingly in his book PROPAGANDA, published in 1929, once individuals with some leadership skills and organizational abilities have been inculcated with the values, tastes and attitudes that the ruling classes wish the masses to be inculcated with to the extent that they think those values, tastes and attitudes are their own and arise from their own free will and inclinations; they will influence others to think similarly. A free .pdf download of PROPAGANDA and my book review in English on: http://www.crimsonbird.com/history/propaganda.htm .

Democracy capitalizes on human gregariousness and need for belonging. We humans are biologically, psychologically and emotionally constituted to be part of a group. Most of us experience the need to be loved, to be respected, to have as much status as we are able to accrue to ourselves and to belong as imperatives.

Democracy threatens us with alienation and isolation if we do not adopt acceptable behavior, speech and attitudes.

Democracy is the tyranny of the ubiquitous, immense, inchoate masses that have been conditioned to perceive the true dissenter as an alien and a threat that must be eradicated and whose behavior and reactions have been "engineered" and "manufactured" by the "engineers of public opinion" in the employ of the Plutocrats to beat the individualist into submission.
Only the 'hold-outs' are the true and genuine and can ever be free. Those who cannot be tempted, cajoled, ridiculed, insulted or threatened into submission and giving up what they are are those who are free. They are the ones who smash the idols (even if they are being made in our own fathers' workshops) and who slaughter the sacred cows (of the mind – let there be no misunderstands of my intentions in writing this). Abbey Hoffman is quoted as having said: "Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburgers." Playful nose-snubbing, rather than strident ranting, at the establishment is the hallmark of the true dissident. Their ability to be playful derives from the fact that they were not broken as children by the "free" public school system.
The truly free can never be a state-sanctioned type. The person of integrity bends to no social lie - no matter what the reward of doing so may be, no matter what the punishment of not doing so may be. It is for that reason that dissenters are, always have been and always will be the objects of public derision and private envy.

The best piece of advice that I can extend to Israelis is to turn off your radios and television sets. It is astonishing how these media of mass hypnosis, opinion forming and emotion arousing are ubiquitous in this country, even by Western standards. One can nary go into a waiting room without a TV being situated there "for entertainment" and to "give you something to do while waiting". Every cab driver and bus driver feels compelled to have the radio droning in the background continuously. In every supermarket the talking head blather on and on and... Big Brother is Big Brother even if it shimmies and shakes and sings and is presented to us in too, too bright colors and cutesy, catchy slogans and jingles. We do not need distraction from ourselves. We do not need to be told what to think, what is right and what is wrong, what is beautiful, what is desirable, what we must buy. We most certainly do not need to have our emotions artificially aroused by media that entice us onto a daily rollercoaster of alternate fear, sexual excitation, anger, feelings of superiority, feelings of inferiority, feelings of helplessness and what not.

Turn those damned machines off and read a book. Better yet, think for yourself. You will find that your mind is vastly more interesting that anything that can be staged and scripted for you in the media.

What is the alternative to "democracy"? True Anarchy, as described on the following URL: http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/AuthenticAnarchyHEB.htm

The Hebrew version of this article is to be found on:

http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/IsraelDemocracyRightHEB.htm

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Yisra'el
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

Ontological Anarchy

Peter Lamborn Wilson (aka Hakim Bey) is a genius, in my humble and correct opinion. Like most people who get to the frontiers of consciousness, he sometimes drifts off into deep space and gets ridiculous. That goes with the (lack of) territory. I don't agree with a lot of the things that he writes and I certainly don't follow him around on his various trips into inner and outer space. He's a member of NAMbLA. I do not know if he practices paedophilia or non-violent paederasty. I have no problem with the latter. To my mind, the age of consent should be when both puberty and a reasonable awareness of what the ramifications of a pubescent person engaging in sexual and emotional intercourse with another pubescent person commences. This is obviously very individual and no law can possibly regulate it.

At any rate, Wilson/Bey wrote an essay entitled: "Quantum Mechanics & Chaos TheoryAnarchist Meditations on N. Herbert'sQuantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics"
that impressed me, which is to be found on this URL:

http://www.hermetic.com/bey/quantum.html

While I do not agree with his timeline of human development, I think there has been a lot of overlap and at any given time all forms were present to one extent or another; I must certainly do agree with his thesis that our societal relationships impact on how and what we are able to perceive and vice versa.

I agree with Wilsom entirely that Anarchy is Ontological. The political and social aspects of Anarchy are expressions of Ontological Anarchy on the human level.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

Anecdote: The Day I Became a "Real" Israeli in the Shuq (Market)

I wrote the following to a woman who grew up in England. She contends that she is dismayed at the prejudice she sees in England "of late". I explained to her that prejudice has always been rife in England and that if she did not see it it is probably because she grew up in a demographically heterogeneous area.

Her riposte was that once when her family were on vacation her brothers spent the day playing with a little Pakistani boy.

I answered:

In order to make my point clear; I'll offer an anecdote.

Here in Israel we have open market days once a week called the shuq. Typically, food is a good deal cheaper in the shuq than in stores. The produce is also farm-fresh. One of the reasons that some of the foodstuffs are cheaper is because they come in bulk and are weighed out to the customer, rather than being pre-packaged. The fact that the foods are in bulk, and in large, open containers, sacks or boxes makes it easy for people to just reach in and taste the wares: dried fruits, cookies, sweets, etc. For many years I found the idea of taking from food that countless people reached into and ate from (sometimes more than one taste) extremely off-putting. Gradually, I got over the queasiness as I realized that no one around me seemed to be suffering any ill effects from the practice. One day when I was in the market I reached into a bag and took one of the types of cookie I intended to buy and ate it. Delighted with my new level of integration into Israeli society; when I got I said to my son: "Today I became a real Israeli. I ate from one of the open boxes of cookies in the shuk (market)!" He looked at me levelly and said: "You're still not a real Israeli, Mom. You'll be a real Israeli when you do it and never give it a thought." And so I say to you: You will be a really unprejudiced person when you do not preface the children that your brothers played with as "Pakistani" or whatever other than English preface you put to them, just as you do not say: "My brothers played with English children".

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

Let It Be Known

Let it be known outside of Israel that:

1) 1000 of the 5000 meals that were donated by a charity went unaccounted for every day. The worker at the Municipality who was in charge of distribution told local reporters that he was told to put the 1000 meals aside daily and to leave no written record as to having received them.

2) A truck load full of air conditioners that were donated for the poorly-ventilated, sweltering bomb shelters vanished into, well, thin air.

3) Ditto for the TVs that were donated. In contradistinction, the workers of the Municipality (that is, the 17 out of 350 who didn't desert the city entirely) arranged deluxe, "VIP" shelters for themselves, replete with color TV, A/C and Internet.

4) The free days in hotels, including free meals, that were donated by the hotels themselves and were specifically designated for the infirm and elderly first and foremost were, instead, used by workers in the Municipality. As the result of not getting one of those rooms, one woman whose 8-year-old handicapped, wheelchair-bound daughter, who must be kept in sterile conditions, contracted an infection and had to be hospitalized. Some relative of some worker of the City got the room that little girl should have had. No matter, eventually she got a nice room - in the hospital.

5) A huge number of disposable diapers that was donated likewise disappeared. What the hell can someone do with tons of nappies??? As a result of most of the Municipality workers running for the own lives and leaving us here to die, the army sent in a regiment of reserve soldiers to run the city. They did an exemplary job of handling the exigencies, but the potential peril of the precedent of being deserted by the democratically-elected government of the city and being governed almost entirely by high-ranking officers in the army need not be elaborated upon.

Tzfat has been dubbed "The Ignominy of the Galilee" in the national press.

I am LIVID and despite the fact that I have been advised by frightened citizens that if I do not shut up; I run the risk of arrest and possibly being jailed, I will not shut up.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

A New Invention in Honor of Tzfat

Tzfat's (Safed's) having been dubbed "The Ignominy of the Galilee" in the national press, is the afflatus for a new gadget I've developed that will prove to be very useful for the residents of Tzfat.

A patent is already pending. So, no one better even think of stealing it.

It is called the Ignominometer.

It is a special cuff to measure the elevation of one's blood pressure in response to the anger as a result of, or the lowering of one's blood pressure in response to the shame of, the various degrees of ignominy which Tzfat is characterized by at any given moment.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

הממשלה הוכיחה כי היא מיותרת

http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/MysticalAnarchyII.html

דורין אלן בל-דותן,צפת
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

The Israeli Government Proved Itself to be Superfluous

The local government of the city of Tzfat (Safed) and, to a far lesser extent, the national government collapsed during the war. The local government of the city of Tzfat was simply non-existent.

Here in Tzfat only 17 of the 350 workers in the Municipality remained in the city during the war.

Reserve soldiers had to be brought in to see to it that the special needs of the city were taken care of. That is to say, that the supposedly democratic local government of the city of Tzfat deserted us and we were run militarily for a month. The precedent is so potentially dangerous that I need not elaborate.

In their absence the Municipality proved that they are superfluous. We simply do not need them. They are not even parasites. They are superfluous. They have realized their worst nightmare as politicians. They are not only not wanted, they are needed, not in the least.

There are many citizen-run organizations that can easily be modified slightly in order to become the bodies that take care of all of the functions of this city.

Milgam, Inc., the company that provides our water in Tzfat, is not a municipal agency. They are a private company. Our gas is provided by private companies. Although the electric company is a government company; it could be modified to be a worker-run collective with concerted effort.

Instead of the charity organizations, of which we have a very respectable number here in Tzfat, being organized to pick up where the government leaves off and, in so doing, perpetuate, rather than alleviate, poverty; they can be modified to be the bodies that care for the various needs of the residents of Tzfat.

If the charity organizations became the organizations and agencies that provide necessaries to all, not merely giving hand-outs to the needy, we would be able to eradicate indigence, as befits Jews. We would all have our needs provided for truly. Imagine no one having to beg for their subsistence. Imagine no one being punished with poverty for the "crime" of being aged, handicapped, widowed, orphaned or unemployable for whatever the reason. We can do better vastly better for ourselves and one another than can the government National Insurance Agency!

Instead of turning to the city for every need and want big and small be must learn to rely upon ourselves and upon one another. The concept is called Mutual Aid. We trade that which we can provide for that which we need. We become as maximally self-reliant as possible and create a culture of cooperative sharing.

There is nothing that the Municipality is doing for us that we cannot do far more efficiently, promptly, cost-effectively, fairly, caringly and honestly ourselves – and in a far more personalized manner, providing the services such that they fit individual needs and not strapping every citizen to a procrustean bed.

It is high time that the Israeli public was weaned from the co-dependent addiction and sickness of turning to the government only to get nothing but a kick in the teeth and then turning to the government again for comfort because they have been kicked in the teeth....

Since the Municipality of Tzfat was the first in the country to collapse utterly, it devolves upon Tzfat to become the premier model city for self-government on the part of the residents.

We can supplant the Municipality and take over every one of their functions. All we have to do is believe in ourselves and in one another and organize.

Let's send the workers of the Municipality of the City of Tzfat on a permanent vacation to Eilat!

Both the Hebrew and the English versions of this essay can be found on the following site:

http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/MysticalAnarchyII.html

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

"People are Nothing But Sheep! They are Nothing But Lemmings!"

So the brainwashed, who are the unpaid, inadvertent agents of brainwashing, in turn say - a countless number of times every day just about everywhere.

I say:

We see in small children two tendencies:

1) to be original, individual and individualistic

2) to be like those they admire

They can, depending upon how they are educated, go either way. We are educated, forcibly, such that the sheep-like tendency is fostered. We are broken in the public schools by means that would be considered mental, emotional and physical torture if they were appraised honestly.

Like Pat Benetar sang: "Hell is for Children".

After being stunted, stultified, crippled and truncated we are told that we can't be set free because people are lemmings and sheep-like. Those who claim that "people are nothing but sheep and lemmings" are merely, and mindlessly, repeating what they have been told about themselves and what they have heard everyone else being told about themselves and telling one another all their lives. They are reinforcing the brainwashing.

Fight like hell to break out of the vicious cycle of repeating to yourself that you and everyone around you are incapable of independent thought and action!

The reader might be interested in looking into the educational system of one Francisco Ferrer. His theories of education served as the basis of what was called "Modern Schools" in a number of countries, including the US. There are accounts of ex-students of his school in New Jersey on the net. They remember being free, creative and, above all, happy children.

As one might expect, he was put to death for being a radical in his native Spain. Setting people free is a dangerous avocation.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

אל לישראל לשוב למצב לפני המלחמה

http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/IsraelMustNotReturnToTheStatusQuoHEB.htm

דורין אלן בל-דותן, צפת
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

Israel Must Not Return to the Status Quo Ante Bellum

Now, with the cessation of fire in Lebanon when we are no longer under constant threat of death, we look around us and allow ourselves to estimate the full extent of the devastation. We bury our dead. We mourn. We clear away the rubble of what once were homes and other structures. We assess the ecological loss of forestry that was set back fifty years. We ask: "Why? We ask: "Did this have to be?" We ask: "Why weren't the lives of our soldiers protected to the absolute maximum?" We ask: "Did our government betray and attempt to befuddle us?" We ask: "How could Hezbollah have been left to arm itself and train without disturbance for six long years?" We ask: "Why didn't our leaders obviate this war?" We know that something, many things really, were blundered horrifically. Young men paid with their lives and the integrity of their bodies and psyches. Families are devastated.

But the execrable prosecution of this war was not just a matter of blundering. It is not just a matter of faulty intelligence. Our government always disappoints us. They always fail us. They always abuse use. We always pay for their luxurious lifestyles with the quality of our lives, if not our lives themselves. During wartime the faults of governments are highlighted because they are exaggerated. The truth is, governments are always bodies characterized by the crudest methods of intimidation and grossest excesses of mendacity. They are always peopled by those who, were they wiser and better, would refuse to be government officials for the shame of the debauchery, improbity and moral squalor being part in a government necessarily entails. We simply see this in greater relief clearly after a war, but we see nothing that is not always apparent, just somewhat less so. It is only after a war that we all become agreed that the failings of government must be addressed.

The government of Israel will now be faced with questions, but they will still not be faced with the questions that most urgently need to be asked in the forms in which those questions really must be formulated. They will be faced with questions that they are eminently capable of fielding and they will answer on their terms. They will answer the questions posed to them such that they retain their political positions; such that the economic status quo in Israel, which keeps a full one third of Israel's children below the poverty line, remains intact; such that Israeli workers continue to be worked to exhaustion and live in constant trepidation of losing their jobs, not being able to pay their mortgages or the many payments they are responsible for; such that Israel's children remain the victims of violence in public schools, to which they are sent in order to be systematically broken into docile, subservient citizens who run to their death when the government calls them to wars that need not have been fought, wars they do not know how to prosecute, wars that are fought so that the filthy businesses of the super-wealthy who produce armaments continue at a brisker pace.

In the wake of this war we are at a crossroads. We can change society substantially. Israel must not return to the status quo. The Israeli people, if we are not to continue to be used, abused and sent to our deaths, if we are not to fool ourselves that any victory in war is anything but a Pyrrhic victory, must mature and take steps closer to the way in which mature, fully Human beings organize society - that is, the way of Anarchy.

The term anarchy has been much maligned. Anarchy does not mean a lack of order. Governments would have the public think that Anarchy is a state of violent chaos. It is anything but.

Governments and big businesses would paint pictures of Anarchists as those dedicated to the destruction of society. We are anything but. It is our purpose to build society – real society that is inhabitable for fully realized, fully human beings.

Anarchy means simply the absence of government. It is a condition in which there is no state – the people rule themselves and society is a dynamic kaleidoscope of purely voluntary social and economic interactions based on the common advantage of all who choose to take part in those interactions. So too in an Anarchistic society, one may choose freely not to take part in any human interactions that are not personally palatable, productive or otherwise satisfying or desirable.

Anarchy is a condition in which there is no private property. Everyone owns all, but of course, it is recognized that each individual needs certain private effects that may differ from the needs of others and those are provided for in such a way that the genuine needs of the person are fulfilled, while capital cannot be made of the effects nor can power accrue from them. Unlike Marxist Communism, as it is has been expressed so dreadfully, there is no central state that controls the modes of production. That which differentiates Anarchy from Marxism must be made clear. We are non-authoritarian and therefore do not accept the existence of any kind of state. The expression "dictatorship of the proletariat" is half honest. It is indeed a dictatorship, but in no wise represents the interests of or is concerned with the welfare of the proletariat. Moreover, we understand that people are more than just workers. Work is absolutely essential, of course, but we must associate in the fullness of our humanness in order to access, express and share the deepest levels of our being.

In an Anarchic society there is no state that retains an army and a police force that are illegally utilized to put people out of their homes and force them to live in tents. There is no value of commodities or labor. Anarchists understand that it is impossible to determine how much any item is "worth" based on the hours or difficulty of work that went into it per se. Therefore, our motto is: From each according to his or her ability, to each according to his or her need.

Anarchy is a condition in which children are not sent to prison-like schools, which are nothing but indoctrination facilities and holding pens in which they are subjected to monotony, humiliation, competition, violence and more – all intended to break the child's spirit and make him or her malleable.

In a state of Anarchy children learn for the sake of the joy of learning, as was the case in the system of education developed by Francisco Ferrer. The best in children is creatively drawn from them. They are not force-fed unsupported and unsupportable assumptions like ducks and geese being force-fed with pneumatic pumps for pate gras.

Anarchy is not only simply in keeping with Judaism, it is a particularly Jewish mode of living and interaction.

Before Israel took upon itself the government of a king we lived in a state of Anarchy. There was no centralized government during the periods of early prophets and the judges. Prophets lived communally with their students who attributed honor and authority to their revered and beloved Teachers solely on the basis of their loving-kindness and wisdom. Wise and trusted elders, who were known personally by the people who sought out their counsel, settled disputes. The Dead Sea Sect lived likewise communally.

The accepting upon ourselves of kings in order to be "a people like every other people" was a decision that proved to be a disaster – even the best of Israel's kings stumbled under the weight of a responsibility that no human being can bear. From this we learn that more than their appointed leaders, those who appoint leaders over themselves are reprehensible.

When we accepted kings upon ourselves we abrogated the right to self-determination. We became subjects, that is, we became slaves.

To this day the Jewish people remain slaves. We are slaves to government. We are slaves to public opinion, which is shaped by professional propagandizers, who are in the employ governments and, more particularly, international corporations, which retain governments as their private body guards. We are slaves to our jobs, which rob us of the lion's share of our production and force us to work brutally long hours under extreme physical and psychic pressure in workplaces that are always understaffed in order to "cut the cost of labor". (It was calculated by Anarchist economist over one hundred years ago that to attain a middle class standard of living for all, all that was required was four or five hours of labor a day. All labor above and beyond that was, and is, pocketed by employers.)

It is a precept that slaves are forbidden to perform some of the precepts of Jewish law. We cannot so much as understand the foregoing precept profoundly or correctly. We imagine that it applies to others. We imagine that we have understood the circumstances being described. We do not realize that it is we to whom it applies. We do not realize that it relates to our circumstances. I have explained how we, in fact, are slaves in so very many ways. We are, then, in fact, exempt from the practice of many precepts. When we insist upon practicing those precepts we do so without deep understanding and in the way of slaves, that is, hurriedly, under pressure and without real joy. We are, in fact, forbidden to practice many of the precepts that we, in our present state of slavery, try to do and in so doing we make a mockery and a travesty of Judaism, which is none other than Freedom. When we learn Torah we cannot possibly understand what we have read and carry out the commandments properly. Chained, shackled, mutilated, crippled and truncated as we are; we cannot move our bodies to do the precepts properly. Poisoned as we are by state propaganda as well as toxic air, water and food; we cannot possibly see or cognate clearly.

Do you know anyone personally who has attained true and complete emancipation of the Soul, body, mind and emotions as a result of carrying out the precepts as they are performed today? No! And neither will you find such a one. Of course we are told tales about perfectly righteous people who possess this freedom. Do you know them? Do they deign to come to your home and live amongst you? No! Why? Because they are yet more phantasmagoria concocted to enslave you still further.

True Judaism is nothing but Freedom and slaves know nothing of freedom and are not capable of living as free human beings.

It follows, if we are to practice Torah as we should, that our first order of business is to ransom one another, to emancipate ourselves and one another mutually. The only real precept that we can carry out in our present reduced state of bondage is to set ourselves free, to throw off the yoke of government, to unloose the chains and shackles that keep us captive to promises of that will never come to realization, to illusions and addictions, to become free moral and moral-spiritual agents.

To build an Anarchistic society is holy work. In fact, it is the only holy work that we are fitted to perform at this juncture. It is the sine qua non of being able to be fully realized Jews. We cannot pray more perfectly than to toil for the purpose of building such a society. No self-sacrifice is greater than this.

Only when we live in a non-authoritarian society characterized by propertylessness, when there will be no more rich and poor, when there will be no more institutionalized injustice that we must submit ourselves and our children to for fear of being prosecuted by state law, when we will have more free time to learn, interact with one another freely and reflect deeply - then and only then will we be able to know what it is to be Jews and know what Judaism is. Until such time the vast majority of our religious expression is frustrated impotency at best, a cruel and pathetic parody in the middling case, at worst manipulation and suppression of the very best in us by agents of the government who reduce masses of people to spiritual servility by heaping upon them meaningless acts to perform and distorted "interpretations" which are devised to prevent us from taking truly moral direct action to rebuild society.

How many are straddled with poverty because of this pseudo-religion? How many children subsist on white bread devoid of nutrition and unhealthy, artery-clogging margarine while their parents give the expected "presents" to their Rabbis and take part in pilgrimages and other "obligatory" religious practices, which seem to multiply exponentially? Those who turn to religion lonely, confounded and disillusioned by the cruelty of society find not a programme for reconstruction of the society that has failed them, but rather, have laws and customs heaped upon them until they are crippled and break.

On the following link you will find essays on Anarchy. Most are in English. Only the essay entitled אנרכיה מובהקת is in Hebrew, having been translated by my husband, Daniel Dotan, at my request. The original English version of אנרכיה מובהקת, under the rubric "Authentic Anarchy", is to be found on the site as well.

http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/Mystical_Anarchy.html

Unfortunately, very little about true Anarchy is familiar to Israelis and, thus, there are practically no treatments of the subject in Hebrew. For the time being; we will have to suffice with the writings in other languages, principally English, and only those who can read other languages will be able to access this school of thought and programme of action we call Anarcho-Syndicalism. It is the hope of the writer that others will be inspired to take it upon themselves to translate Anarchistic essays, lectures and books into Hebrew.

Many of the greatest Anarchists were Jewish. It is not difficult to understand why. Anarchy is an integral part of true Judaism. No true Judaism is possible without it. Those Jews who have loved and love freedom best are those Jews who not only were attracted to Anarchy, it was they who best expressed the heart, soul and intent of true Judaism – emancipation of the human being for the sake of allowing each to actualize his or her absolute optimum and interact fully with others.

It has been said that Anarchists are non-believers, that they are atheists. This writer, it should be stated categorically, is not an atheist, but a convinced Jew.

It is true that most Anarchists do not believe in an authoritarian God who compels people to actions that are not in keeping with their will. It is true that Anarchists do not accept the authority of self-proclaimed religious leaders. It is true that Anarchists do not accept religious institutions bleeding the masses of their money and impoverishing them. It is true that Anarchists do not accept compulsory education of precepts without rational analysis. It is true that Anarchists reject any and all superstitions and the inculcating people with fear. It is true that Anarchists abhor telling the poor, hungry, cold, sick, lonely and miserable that a better life awaits them in the World to Come when a better world could be made for them here.

Are they, then, anti-religionists? No! It is by virtue of the foregoing rejections that they are the very truest of those who express Judaism. Emma Goldman (1869-1940), one of the most prominent Anarchist activists and lecturers of her time and who continues to be an inspiration to all of us, once addressed a large conference of clergymen. She explained her antireligious position. Upon finishing, a Rabbi who had heard her lecture said: "In spite of all Miss Goldman has said against religion, she is the most religious person I know." Anarchists walk the walk that the pseudo-religions only talk the talk about. Anarchists live to emancipate those who are enslaved – and they take great personal risks in so doing for governments and corporations do not easily surrender their power. Anarchists are the prophets and students of prophets of modern times and they pay all the prices for freedom that prophets and students of prophets of yore paid.

Is the realization of a society based on justice, equality and oneness not the discovery and expression of the God of Israel in creation? Is it not God which propels us toward this ultimate freedom which needs be and will?

I invite those of you who truly love freedom and are intrepid enough, who love humankind enough, to bear the responsibility of building a better world, here in this world, to enter the world of the Anarchists and to join hands with us. Is this not the Israel that we envisioned during our two thousand years long Diaspora?

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
August 2006

Anarcho-Anachro-Nacro-Necro-Narcissism

I've done it! It's my tour de force. It's the crowning achievement of decades of not only theoretical rumination, but endeavoring to live according to the principles I hold most dear. I have not only defined and elucidated the precepts, but attained the level of being the living embodiment of my ideation. I have thus formulated the basis of a new movement, which I am absolutely convinced is the one and only hope for all sentient beings and to which I intend to convert the entire world – by force if need be.
I have yclept it Anarcho-Anachro-Nacro-Necro-Narcissism. As the name clearly suggests; Anarcho-Anachro-Nacro-Necro-Narcissism is believing that one is oh, so special because one lives in a stuporous, stateless state which is out of, probably irrelevant to and almost definitely inconsequential and undesirable in any given time frame.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Free-Floating Radical - I try to remain positive :0)
Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

Gandhi, It Transpires, Was No Mahatma (Great Soul)

Many are glamoured and enthralled by the myth of the so-called "Mahatma" Gandhi.

To those still belaboring under that delusion; I refer you to the following quote:

"Take Gandhi, even; within ten months of India's independence, he acquiesced in the law making passive resistance a felony, and he abandoned his nonviolent principles to support the military occupation f Kashmir. Subsequently, we've seen the same thing happen in Goa and Pakistan."

Source: PLAYBOY Interview with Saul Alinsky, 1972; Part 8

http://www.progress.org/2003/alinsky9.htm

Parenthetically, the entire interview, entitled "Empowering People, Not Elites" can be found on: http://www.progress.org/2003/alinsky2.htm

I heartily recommend to any and all activists and would-be activists to read that interview and get to know Saul Alinsky's work.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

Murray Bookchin, Visionary Social Theorist, Dies at 85

Murray Bookchin, visionary writer and activist, died at his home inBurlington, Vermont on July 30th at the age of 85. A revolutionarythinker and prolific writer who authored several AK Press titles, MurrayBookchin produced work spanning two historic eras: that of traditionalproletarian socialism and anarchism, with its working-classinsurrections and struggles against classical fascism, and the postwarperiod of growing corporate capitalism, environmental decay, statistpolitics, and the technocratic mentality. In his work he tried to makesomething coherent of these changes, looking forward to a liberatedfuture. He will be sorely missed.Please visit http://www.akpress.org/bookchinobit for a full obituary byBrian Tokar at the Institute for Social Ecology in Plainfield, Vermont.

This is the obituary:

Murray Bookchin, the visionary social theorist and activist, died during the early morning of Sunday, July 30th in his home in Burlington, Vermont. During a prolific career of writing, teaching and political activism that spanned half a century, Bookchin forged a new anti-authoritarian outlook rooted in ecology, dialectical philosophy and left libertarianism.During the 1950s and '60s, Bookchin built upon the legacies of utopian social philosophy and critical theory, challenging the primacy of Marxism on the left and linking contemporary ecological and urban crises to problems of capital and social hierarchy in general. Beginning in the mid-sixties, he pioneered a new political and philosophical synthesis-termed social ecology-that sought to reclaim local political power, by means of direct popular democracy, against the consolidation and increasing centralization of the nation state.From the 1960s to the present, the utopian dimension of Bookchin's social ecology inspired several generations of social and ecological activists, from the pioneering urban ecology movements of the sixties, to the 1970s' back-to-the-land, antinuclear, and sustainable technology movements, the beginnings of Green politics and organic agriculture in the early 1980s, and the anti-authoritarian global justice movement that came of age in 1999 in the streets of Seattle. His influence was often cited by prominent political and social activists throughout the US, Europe, South America, Turkey, Japan, and beyond.Even as numerous social movements drew on his ideas, however, Bookchin remained a relentless critic of the currents in those movements that he found deeply disturbing, including the New Left's drift toward Marxism-Leninism in the late 1960s, tendencies toward mysticism and misanthropy in the radical environmental movement, and the growing focus on individualism and personal lifestyles among 1990s anarchists. In the late 1990s, Bookchin broke with anarchism, the political tradition he had been most identified with for over 30 years and articulated a new political vision that he called communalism.Bookchin was raised in a leftist family in the Bronx during the 1920s and '30s. He enjoyed retelling the story of his expulsion from the Young Communist League at age 18 for openly criticizing Stalin, his brief flirtation with Trotskyism as a labor organizer in the foundries of New Jersey, and his introduction to anarchism by veterans of the immigrant labor movement during the 1950s. In 1974, he co-founded the Institute for Social Ecology, along with Dan Chodorkoff, then a graduate student at Vermont's Goddard College. For 30 years, the Institute for Social Ecology has brought thousands of students to Vermont for intensive educational programs focusing on the theory and praxis of social ecology. A self-educated scholar and public intellectual, Bookchin served as a full professor at Ramapo College of New Jersey despite his own lack of conventional academic credentials. He published more than 20 books and many hundreds of articles during his lifetime, many of which were translated into Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Turkish and other languages.During the 1960s–80s, Bookchin emphasized his fundamental theoretical break with Marxism, arguing that Marx's central focus on economics and class obscured the more profound role of social hierarchy in the shaping of human history. His anthropological studies affirmed the role of domination by age, gender and other manifestations of social power as the antecedents of modern-day economic exploitation. In The Ecology of Freedom(1982), he examined the parallel legacies of domination and freedom in human societies, from prehistoric times to the present, and he later published a four-volume work, The Third Revolution, exploring anti-authoritarian currents throughout the Western revolutionary tradition.At the same time, he criticized the lack of philosophical rigor that has often plagued the anarchist tradition, and drew theoretical sustenance from dialectical philosophy-particularly the works of Aristotle and Hegel; the Frankfurt School-of which he became increasingly critical in later years-and even the works of Marx and Lenin. During the past year, even while terminally ill in Burlington, Bookchin was working toward a re-evaluation of what he perceived as the historic failure of the 20th century left. He argued that Marxist crisis theory failed to recognize the inherent flexibility and malleability of capitalism, and that Marx never saw capitalism in its true contemporary sense. Until his death, Bookchin asserted that only the ecological problems created by modern capitalism were of sufficient magnitude to portend the system's demise.Murray Bookchin was diagnosed several months ago with a fatal heart condition. He will be remembered by his devoted family members—including his long-time companion Janet Biehl, his former wife Bea Bookchin, his son, daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter—as well as his friends, colleagues and frequent correspondents throughout the world. There will be a public memorial service in Burlington, Vermont on Sunday, August 13th. For more information, email HERE.

Brian Tokar, July 31, 2006

Saul Alinsky vis-a-vis Noam Chomsky - The Difference Between a Dedicated Radical and a Hypocritical Opportunist

http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/AlinskyVisAVisChomsky.htm

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

30-Minute Video About Fluoridated Water

Please watch this video.

It is terribly important to know.

I have written about the dangers of the fluoridation of water in the past, knowing that it was the Nazis who first experimented with it.

There is a great deal of information about the fluoridation of water that I did not know in this video.

It is most instructive.

Among the points discussed is the connection between hyperactivity in children and fluoridated water.

Although the information relates to the fluoridation of water in the US, Israel too fluoridates our water supplies.

http://tinyurl.com/oky7p

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

War, Prisons, Rape, Torture and Other Fun Cheap Thrills

A "contributor" to a Current Events board wrote to a newbie:

Quote: "Please feel free to join in here. It really is fun, if you don't take yourself too seriously."

The statement was topped off by a cutesy wink.

Those who come to message boards for cheap thrills can be trusted to slip up and betray her real intentions, though they protest deep conviction and concern about pressing issues. That facade they put becomes too, too heavy a mantle to bear at some point. They fumble and drop it. The veneer then breaks and we get a glimpse into the mind and emotions of the morally squalid and emotionally truncated.

I am not singling out the person who wrote the above for being raked over the coals. Au contraire. My purpose here is to bring the reader's attention to a phenomenon.

It has been said to me a number of times by "contributors" to CE and political issues boards that I "take myself too seriously". I fluffed the accusation off, knowing that I laugh quite heartily at myself. I took it as a ploy to get me to laugh at myself thinking they were laughing with me, when in fact they would be laughing at me. So, I ignored their "friendly" suggestion.

But then the above quote was written and I realized that the case is that they come to CE and political issues boards only for "fun" and "laughs".

It is the issues that they take lightheartedly and light-headedly, not themselves. Not one of them ever laughs at himself or herself. No, only others are fair game and the butt of jokes to them.

People with a genuinely good and mature sense of humor laugh first and foremost at themselves; they never do

I realized in a flash that these are the very same people who are those who take a position in favor of Arab terrorism. I always knew that they were assuming an obnoxious position in order to get people who are genuinely concerned and passionate about matters that concern all Human beings incensed so that they could have a good laugh at someone who lost their temper. But now I realize that the only people who can take the positions that they take are people who are among those to whom Jimi Hendrix was referring when he sang: "there are many here among us who think that life is but a joke".

The matters discussed on CE and political issues boards are not jokes. They are matters of life and death and Human welfare. Anyone who comes to such boards for fun is perverted.

Certainly, we may enjoy the mental and emotional stimulation of sharing opinions, having our opinions challenged and amending them. But this is not "fun". It's not a cheap thrill.

Certainly, there is no reason for brooding solemnity all the time on a CE board or political forum. There is most definitely room, even a need, for tasteful humor that lightens the atmosphere and helps us to cope with the very difficult. But a general atmosphere of respectful decorum is in order – both for the contributors and for the issues being dealt with.

It took me a long time to realize that so many who people CE boards and political issues fora are there for nothing other than kicks (I mean this in every sense of the word). It is so far from my mind to conceive of things that way that I could simply not understand for the longest time.

But there you have it, in so many words. While a war is raging that could engulf other nations, the contributor who wrote the quote above is having fun and not taking it seriously and that person is hardly alone. Of course, s/he can't say that. So, s/he says that s/he is not taking herself seriously. Oh, no? When did s/he ever have a good-natured belly laugh at his/her own expense or allow anyone else to?

No, it is life itself that is a joke to those who take the side of terrorists. To them it is only a fun "bang bang shoot 'em up" show.

I am indebted to the person who wrote the quote above. I needed to have it presented to me in very blunt terms. I would not have understood it for myself had it not been pushed so indecorously in my face- thank God.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel

DoreenDotan@gmail.com